305. The Protection

The Supreme Court has unanimously struck down the federal gun law under which Hunter Biden was convicted.

Nine justices. Zero dissents. The court that has not agreed on anything in approximately four years agreed on this.

(For context: the Supreme Court has had difficulty reaching unanimous decisions on cases involving voting rights, abortion access, presidential immunity, administrative authority, religious accommodation in the workplace, and the definition of a wetland. Nine justices looked at all of those questions and found, in each case, that it was complicated. They looked at the Hunter Biden gun law and concluded, in unison, that it was not complicated. This took them approximately eight months.)

Hunter Biden was convicted under a law that made it a federal crime to purchase a firearm while being a user of illegal drugs. He had stated on a federal form that he was not a user of controlled substances. He was, at the time, a user of controlled substances. He was convicted and sentenced.

The court's ruling does not address what he said on the form. It addresses the law itself, which the court has now found unconstitutional. This means the conviction cannot stand.

Hunter Biden, as a result of this ruling, is now a private citizen with no active criminal convictions related to firearms. He is also, by most public accounts, a person who has discussed his previous drug use extensively, including in a memoir. The memoir is available on Amazon.

The most unanimous decision the Supreme Court has issued in recent memory benefits a man whose primary legal exposure arose from his use of marijuana.

This outcome was not predicted. It was, however, documented extensively in advance by the same court that just reached it.

The Constitution remains in place. The memoir is still available.